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SEOUL/WASHINGTON — North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that proved its ability to strike America's mainland, drawing a sharp warning from US President Donald Trump and a rebuke from China.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally supervised the midnight launch of the missile on Friday night and said it was a "stern warning" for the United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack, the north's official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea's state television broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides. 

"The test-fire reconfirmed the reliability of the ICBM system, demonstrated the capability of making a surprise launch of the ICBM in any region and place any time, and clearly proved that the whole US mainland is in the firing range of the DPRK missiles, [Kim] said with pride," KCNA said.

DPRK is short for the north's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The launch comes less than a month after the North conducted its first ICBM test in defiance of years of efforts led by the United States, South Korea and Japan to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions.

The north conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests last year and has engaged in an unprecedented pace of missile development that experts said significantly advanced its ability to launch longer-range ballistic missiles.

"By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people," Trump said in a statement. "The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region."

 China, the north's main ally, said it opposed North Korea's "launch activities that run counter to Security Council resolutions and the common wishes of the international community."

 A foreign ministry statement added: "At the same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from continuing to escalate, to jointly protect regional peace and stability." 

Early on Saturday, the United States and South Korea conducted a live-fire ballistic missile exercise in a display of firepower in response to the missile launch, the US and South Korean militaries said.

All options

The Trump administration has said that all options are on the table to deal with North Korea. However, it has also made clear that diplomacy and sanctions are its preferred course.

The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the United States held separate phone calls and agreed to step up strategic deterrence against the North and push for a stronger UN Security Council sanctions resolution, the South and Japan said.

South Korea has also said it will proceed with the deployment of four additional units of the US THAAD anti-missile defence system that President Moon Jae-in has earlier delayed for an environmental assessment.

Moon, who has pledged to engage the north in dialogue but was snubbed by Pyongyang recently over his proposal to hold cross-border military talks, said Seoul will also seek to expand its missile capabilities.

China's Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern about the announced move on THAAD, saying it will only make things more complex. Beijing opposes the missile defence system because its power radars can look deep into China.

"We strongly urge South Korea and the United States to face squarely China's concerns about its interests, stop the relevant deployment process and withdraw the related equipment," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The missile test came a day after the US Senate approved a package of sanctions on North Korea, Russia and Iran. Trump is ready to sign the bill, the White House said on Friday.

The sanctions are likely to include measures aimed at Chinese financial institutions that do business with North Korea. Washington has also proposed a new round of UN sanctions on North Korea following its July 4 ICBM test.

‘Reliable ICBM
by year-end’

In Friday's test, North Korea's Hwasong-14 missile, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of 3,724.9km and flew 998km for 47 minutes and 12 seconds before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast, KCNA said.

Western experts said the flight was an improvement on North Korea's first test of an ICBM.

The flight demonstrated successful stage separation, reliability of the vehicle's control and guidance to allow the warhead to make an atmospheric reentry under conditions harsher than under a normal long-range trajectory, KCNA said.

The trajectory was in line with the estimates given by the South Korean, US and Japanese militaries, which said the missile was believed to be an ICBM-class rocket.

Independent weapons experts said the launch demonstrated many parts of the United States were within range if the missile had been launched at a flattened trajectory.

The US-based Union of Concerned Scientists said its calculations showed the missile could have been capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago.

David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a blog post that if it had flown on a standard trajectory, the missile would have had a range of 10,400 km.

Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated a range of at least 9,500km and said the window for a diplomatic solution with North Korea "is closing rapidly."

"The key here is that North Korea has a second successful test in less than one month," he said. "If this trend holds, they could establish an acceptably reliable ICBM before year's end."

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump could veto pending legislation that would slap new sanctions on Russia in order to push for a tougher deal than the one winding through Congress, a top White House aide said on Thursday. 

“He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians,” White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN.

His comments came after lawmakers on Wednesday reached an agreement that paves the way for the Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without congressional approval.

Russia has warned it could retaliate against Washington, while the European Union said the move might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too. 

The House of Representatives has already approved the sanctions. If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. 

If Trump vetos it, however, the measure is expected to garner enough bipartisan support to override it. 

Scaramucci, who was appointed on Friday, cast the president’s consideration of a possible veto in light of his core supporters in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” programme.

“He is a counterintuitive, counterpunching personality,” citing the president’s recent “fan base” at a recent rally. “The American people get it. The American people like what he is doing. The establishment does not like what he is doing. He’s going to disrupt the establishment.”

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would be forced to retaliate at some point if Washington pressed ahead with new sanctions against Moscow, but said his response would depend on the final text of the proposed law.

Putin, on a visit to Finland, said the proposed US sanctions were “extremely cynical” and an attempt by Washington to safeguard its own geopolitical interests at the expense of its allies in Europe. Investigations into Russia’s alleged meddling in the US presidential elections were merely a symptom of growing anti-Russian hysteria in the United States, Putin said.

The  European Union fears the new restrictions could be an obstacle to its companies doing business with Russia and threaten the bloc’s energy supply lines, but the 28-country bloc is divided over how to respond.

The head of the German Committee on East European Economic Relations said potential damage to European energy sector companies with business interests in Russia could justify counter-sanctions.

“It’s the last thing we want, but we must keep the option open,” Michael Harms told a news conference in Berlin.

“The sanctions they want against pipeline projects seem designed to boost energy exports to Europe, create jobs and strengthenforeign policy.”

Unlike the United States, whose growing production of shale gas has slashed its reliance on energy imports, much of Central Europe depends on imports of Russian gas through a vast latticework of pipelines.

“Imposing sanctions that hit a third party, namely Europe, and at the same time promoting the American economy with the slogan ‘buy American gas’ — that’s pretty striking,” said Kurt Bock, chief executive of Germans chemicals giant BASF , which drills for gas in Russia.

The EU has imposed its own sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, and Germany has taken a particularly tough stance towards Moscow.

Last week Reuters reported that Germany was urging Brussels to add four more Russian nationals and companies to its blacklist over Siemens gas turbines delivered to Ukraine’s Crimea region, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

German economy minister Brigitte Zyries complained on Thursday that Washington had abandoned the “common line” it has maintained with Europe over Russia.

But despite the EU sanctions and Europe’s criticism of Moscow on other fronts as well as Ukraine — including allegations that Russian spies are meddling in Western elections — Russia remains a crucial business partner for Germany.

On Thursday, the Committee raised to 20 per cent its forecast for growth in German exports to Russia in 2017, compared to 10 per cent in its previous forecast.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is making progress in talks with North Korean ally China on imposing new United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang over its latest missile test, but Russia's engagement will be the "true test", US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said.

The United States gave China a draft resolution nearly three weeks ago to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea over the July 4 missile launch. Haley had been aiming for a vote by the 15-member Security Council within weeks, senior diplomats said.

"We're constantly in touch with China... Things are moving but it's still too early to tell how far they'll move," Haley said on Tuesday, adding that she was pleased with China's initial response to the US proposal because it showed "seriousness". 

"We know that China's been sharing and negotiating with Russia, so as long as they are doing that, we're going to continue to watch this closely to make sure it is a strong resolution," she told reporters.

China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi told reporters: "We are making progress, it requires time, but we're working very hard."

Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said any United Nations' moves should help ensure peace, stability and denuclearisation.

"All sides need to maintain pressure, and also work hard to ease the tense situation on the peninsula as soon as possible, creating a beneficial environment and atmosphere for resuming contacts and talks," Lu told a daily news briefing. 

Traditionally, the United States and China have negotiated sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members, though diplomats said Washington informally keeps Britain and France in the loop. Along with Russia, those five countries are veto-wielding Security Council members.

"The true test will be what [the Chinese] have worked out with Russia [and whether] Russia comes and tries to pull out of that," said Haley.

The United States and Russia have waged rival campaigns at the Security Council over the type of ballistic missile fired by North Korea. Western powers have said it was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while Russia said the missile fired was only medium-range.

Diplomats say China and Russia only view a long-range missile test or nuclear weapon test as a trigger for further possible UN sanctions.

"Everyone that we have dealt with acknowledges that it's an ICBM. Whether they are willing to put it in writing or not is going to be the real question," Haley said.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.

President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and senior officials have said Washington could impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.

When asked how long Washington was willing to negotiate with China at the United Nations before deciding to impose its own secondary sanctions, Haley said: "We're making progress... We're going to see what the situation is."

 "We want China and every other country to see it as serious and we're going to keep moving forward that way," she said. 

China's Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday that Beijing objected to secondary sanctions. In June, the United States blacklisted two Chinese citizens and a shipping company for helping North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

"Such actions are unacceptable. They have severely impaired China-US cooperation on the Korean nuclear issue, and give rise to more questions about the true intention of the US," he told the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington.

WASHINGTON — Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a US Navy surveillance plane over the East China Sea at the weekend, with one jet coming within about 91 metres of the American aircraft, US officials said on Monday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial reports showed one of the Chinese J-10 aircraft came close enough to the US EP-3 plane on Sunday to cause the American aircraft to change direction. 

One of the officials said the Chinese jet was armed and the interception happened 148km from the Chinese city of Qingdao.

The Pentagon said the encounter between the aircraft was unsafe, but added that the vast majority of interactions were safe.

China's Defence Ministry said the actions of its pilots were "legal, necessary and professional" and performed "in accordance with the law and the rules".

"Close-in reconnaissance by US aircraft threatens China's national security, harms Sino-US maritime and air military safety, endangers the personal safety of both sides' pilots and is the root cause of unexpected incidents," it said.

The United States should immediately stop these military activities, which are unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly, it added.

Incidents such as Sunday's intercept are relatively common.

In May, two Chinese SU-30 aircraft intercepted a US aircraft designed to detect radiation while it was flying in international air space over the East China Sea.

China closely monitors any US military activity around its coastline.

In 2001, an intercept of a US spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on Hainan.

The 24 US air crew members were held for 11 days until Washington apologised for the incident. That encounter soured US-Chinese relations in the early days of President George W. Bush's first term in office.

Separately, the Pentagon said the US military would soon carry out another test of it's Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system.

"These tests are done as a routine measure to ensure that the system is ready and... they are scheduled well in advance of any other real world geopolitical events going on," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters. 

The director of the Missile Defence Agency, Lieutenant General Sam Greaves, said in a statement that a test would be carried out at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska. 

Last month the United States shot down a simulated, incoming intermediate-range ballistic missile similar to the ones being developed by countries like North Korea, in a test of the nation's THAAD missile defences.

The United States deployed THAAD to South Korea this year to guard against North Korea's shorter-range missiles. That has drawn fierce criticism from China, which says the system's powerful radar can penetrate deep into its territory.

LAHORE — An explosion claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 25 people and injured dozens in a busy vegetable market in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, officials said, but the cause of the blast was not immediately clear. 

The powerful explosion hit a bustling main road in the south of Lahore and blew out windows in nearby buildings.

"A suicide bomber of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) used a motorcycle bomb to kill dozens of policemen," TTP spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in a statement e-mailed to local media.

"Our message to frontline allies of enemies of Islam is to get out of our way or be ready to suffer this fate," Khurasani added.

Initial police investigations suggested it might be a suicide bomb attack.

"Apparently, according to our initial findings, he was a suicide bomber, who used a motorcycle," deputy chief of police operations branch, Haider Ashraf told reporters in Lahore.

The city's commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbul said the blast targeted police.

Lahore police spokesman Syed Hammad Shah put the toll at 25 dead with 40 injured. Senior local administration official Sumair Ahmad Syed confirmed the death toll, though he put the number of injured at 35.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference held minutes after the blast that most of the casualties were police officers, but was unable to confirm the nature of the explosion.

Haider Ashraf told AFP that at least 10 police officers were among the dead.

The area was busy with police at the time because officers had been sent to the market to clear stalls that had illegally spilt onto the road.

Provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said the blast had appeared to target the vegetable market, which was crowded with shoppers.

Eyewitness Sher Dil, who works at an office close to the site of the explosion, said it blew out the windows of his office building.

"I was in my office when it all happened. It was a deafening blast, which shook the entire Arfa Karim Towers," Dil told AFP.

Pakistan's president, prime minister and army chief all issued statements expressing condolences for the loss of life.

Lahore has been hit by significant militant attacks in Pakistan's more than decade-long war on extremism, but they have been less frequent in recent years.

PYONGYANG — The Westerners lined up on Sunday before giant statues of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-il and, on command from their guide, bowed deeply.

It is a ritual that the Trump administration intends to stop US tourists performing, with Washington due to impose a ban this week on its citizens holidaying in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as the North is officially known.

The move comes amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile ambitions — it launched a rocket earlier this month which specialists say could reach Alaska or Hawaii — and after the death of US student Otto Warmbier, who had been imprisoned for more than a year by Pyongyang.

Warmbier was convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for trying to steal a propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel. He was sent home in June in a mysterious coma that proved fatal soon afterwards.

Most tourists to North Korea are motivated by curiosity and the desire to experience a different destination.

The iconic 20-metre-high statues at Mansu hill look out over Pyongyang and groups of North Koreans in suits and ties arrive regularly to pay their respects. Passing traffic is obliged to slow down.

As the tourists reached the platform speakers played "We miss our general", about Kim Jong-il, the father of current leader Kim Jong-un.

"President Kim Il-sung liberated our country and built a people's paradise on this land," they were told.

Call centre manager Kyle Myers, 28, from Ireland, said he wanted "to go somewhere very different from what I'm used to" for his first trip to Asia, "to see something that not a lot of people from back home have seen".

The mounting tensions in the year since he booked the tour had made him nervous, he said, but he added: "I don't see the threat here for tourists as long as they behave themselves and they follow the rules of the country."

'A little disquieting' 

Some of the visitors — who paid from 1,850 euros ($2,157) for the tour — expressed enthusiasm. Australian IT manager Pallavi Phadke, 43, was among those who placed a bouquet before the statues.

It was "a sign of respect", she told AFP. "It's the same as covering your head when you go to a mosque or removing your shoes when you go to a temple.

"The people seem happy, they certainly don't appear to be oppressed or anything," she said. "They're very proud of their country, they're proud of their history and it's nice to watch them be patriotic."

Many disagree, with the United Nations, multiple Western governments and independent groups accusing Pyongyang of widespread human rights violations.

Other tourists were more sceptical. Mark Hill, a writer and editor from Calgary in Canada, compared the statues to "a very grim Mount Rushmore".

"It's all very impressive and also a little disquieting," he said.

For years the US State Department has warned its citizens against travelling to North Korea, telling them that they are “at serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea's system of law enforcement", which "imposes unduly harsh sentences for actions that would not be considered crimes in the United States", including showing disrespect to the country's leaders and proselytising.

It is "entirely possible that money spent by tourists in the DPRK" goes to fund its weapons programmes, it adds.

The ban will go into force 30 days after it is formally declared, said department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, and "US passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea".

'Monolithic evil force' 

The vast majority of tourists to North Korea are from China, its sole major ally and key provider of trade and aid.

Americans make up around 20 per cent of the 4,000 to 5,000 Western tourists who go to the country each year, according to Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours, the leader in the niche market, which brought Sunday's visitors to Pyongyang.

Warmbier's death had already hammered the market, he said, with bookings down 50 per cent since then.

"It's would-be customers' perceptions that anybody can make a mistake," he told AFP. "And almost everyone in their lives has made some mistake and of course they don't want the consequences of that mistake to be so devastating."

But Washington's move, he said, was self-defeating. As well as the potential ramifications for North Koreans who earn their living from tourism, he said, it would "completely eliminate any human interaction between United States citizens and North Korean citizens".

Pyongyang's state propaganda about the US was "100 per cent negative", he said, but contacts between tourists and locals "work against the idea that foreigners are some kind of monolithic evil force out to undermine the North Koreans".

"The idea that tourism is somehow sustaining the government is absurd," he added. "The numbers are very low, the revenues are very low."

Young Pioneer Tours, the firm which brought Warmbier to the North, had already said it would no longer take US citizens to the country.

Among Sunday's tour group was comedy writer Evan Symon, from Los Angeles, who as a result of Washington's ban is likely to be one of the last American tourists to the country for several years.

"It's just what happened," he said. "Kind of cool in a way, I guess."

MANILA — Philippine lawmakers on Saturday voted to retain martial law on the southern island of Mindanao until the end of the year, giving President Rodrigo Duterte more time to tackle armed extremists allied with the Daesh group.

Some 261 legislators agreed to extend military rule in a seven hour-long joint special session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, more than the required two-thirds of the house.

Security officials had told lawmakers that martial law was needed to stabilise a region where the Daesh terror group was gaining influence, and supporters could be inspired to stage uprisings in other areas of Mindanao, joined by foreign extremists.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana warned of more serious problems if the government did not have the powers to act swiftly. 

"We need martial law because we haven't addressed yet the existence of other Daesh-inspired groups," he said, referring to another name for Daesh.

Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law on May 23 when heavily-armed militants belonging to the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups along with foreign fighters stormed Marawi City, sparking the biggest security crisis of his presidency.

The battle to liberate Marawi continues two months after, with more than 420 militants, 100 soldiers and 45 civilians killed. Some of those were executed by the rebels, according to the military.

Government troops pulverised and retook some of the Maute strongholds after weeks of artillery attacks and air strikes, but an estimated 70 militants remained holed up in the downtown area. 

"The rebellion in Marawi continues to persist and we want to stop the spread of the evil ideology of terrorism and free the people of Mindanao from the tyranny of lawlessness and violent extremism," Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

But martial law remains a sensitive issue in the Philippines as it brings back memories of human rights abuses that occurred in the 1970s under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

He was ousted in a "people power" revolt in 1986. Saturday's vote paves the way for the first ever extension of a period of martial law since the Marcos era.

Opponents expressed fears Duterte might eventually place the entire country under martial law, but the authorities have dismissed that.

Senator Franklin Drilon said the extension until end of the year was too long and Senator Risa Hontiveros, a staunch critic of Duterte, said martial law has "no strategic contribution to the military's anti-terrorism operations".

Congressman Edcel Lagman said there was "no factual basis" for martial law and that the siege in Marawi was terrorism, not rebellion.

Rebellion is one of the pre-conditions for declaring martial law under a 1987 constitution that was drafted to prevent a repeat of the Marcos era abuses.

Military chief General Eduardo General Aٌo said retaking Marawi has proven difficult because it was the first time troops had engaged in a "Mosul-type, hybrid urban warfare", referring to the fighting in the Iraqi city until recently held by Daesh.

BERLIN — Germany on Thursday vowed stinging measures hitting tourism and investment in Turkey and a full “overhaul” of their troubled relations, signalling its patience had snapped after Ankara’s arrests of human rights activists.

The government stepped up its travel advisory for the NATO ally as Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned it could no longer guarantee its citizens’ safety in the face of “arbitrary” mass arrests, a step set to hit a sector crucial to Turkey’s ailing economy.

A day after his ministry summoned Turkey’s ambassador, Gabriel interrupted his holiday and returned to Berlin to deliver his unusually strong comments towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Relations between Turkey and Germany, home to 3 million ethnic Turks, have been badly strained, particularly since the failed coup a year ago against Erdogan.

Gabriel said Germany would review state guarantees for foreign investment in Turkey and urge businesses not to put their money there, and also reconsider its support for billions in EU financial flows earmarked over coming years for the long-time aspirant to membership of the bloc.

A Social Democrat, Gabriel made clear he was speaking for the coalition government led by conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, and her spokesman soon tweeted that the steps were indeed “necessary and indispensable”.

Gabriel recalled that Turkey, having long seen itself as “a member of the European family”, had levelled Nazi jibes at Germany, and accused Erdogan of worsening a crisis that Berlin had repeatedly sought to ease through dialogue.

He accused Erdogan of trying to muzzle “every critical voice” with mass arrests in sweeping crackdowns over the last year.

Gabriel stressed that Germany still wanted to rebuild relations with its long-time ally but that first Erdogan’s government must “return to European values”.

Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin accused Germany of “great political irresponsibility” in stepping up its travel warning and said: “We do not accept this.”

 He pointed to Germany’s election in September, saying: “It’s unacceptable to try and damage economic relations, try and arouse doubts in the minds of German investors, for the sake of petty electoral calculations.”

Activists held ‘hostage’ 

A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered six rights activists to remain in custody for allegedly aiding a “terror” group — among them Amnesty International’s Turkey director Idil Eser and Berlin-based activist Peter Steudtner. 

Turkey in February arrested, on similar charges, German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel of Die Welt and is holding several other German citizens.

Erdogan has demanded Germany extradite people he blames for conspiring against him, mostly alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen whom he accuses of orchestrating the coup, a charge Gulen denies.

Germany has granted asylum to some Turkish dissidents, journalists and military officers who feared being swept up in the post-coup arrests.

German politicians and media have accused Erdogan of detaining German citizens as “hostages” to trade for Turks in Germany, but Gabriel said he “had heard of no official exchange offer”.

News weekly Die Zeit said Ankara’s blacklist also includes large German companies such as Daimler and BASF, claims dismissed as “absurd” by German security sources.

Gabriel, without referring to those claims, said that “you can’t advise someone to invest in a country where there is no legal certainty and even completely innocent companies are linked to terrorism”.

Escalating row 

German-Turkish relations have steadily deteriorated in recent years, amid a free speech dispute centred on a German TV comedian and a German parliamentary vote on the sensitive historical question of the Armenian genocide.

Erdogan has fumed over Germany’s decision to deny him and other Turkish politicians opportunities to campaign in Germany, home to the largest Turkish community abroad due to its “guest worker” programme of the 1950s and 1960s.

The NATO allies have also clashed over thwarted visits by German lawmakers to troops stationed at Turkish bases. 

Germany last month pulled out its 260 military personnel from Turkey’s Incirlik base, from where a multinational coalition is fighting the Daesh extremist group in Iraq and Syria, and redeployed them in Jordan. 

The spat has cast clouds over Turkey’s long-term push to join the European Union, and threatened a 2016 deal between Ankara and the EU that has stemmed the mass influx of migrants and refugees into the block.

Top-selling Bild daily cheered that Gabriel “has shown Erdogan what happens when you break the rules. Finally! That took far too long! Hopefully he will get the message”.

 Several weeks ago, Erdogan told Die Zeit weekly that if more German tourists shun the popular holiday destination, Turkey would simply seek to attract more visitors from Russia, now the number two country of origin.

SEOUL — Hours before proposed military talks between South and North Korea, Pyongyang on Thursday still refused to confirm its participation, officials said.

Seoul's defence ministry had offered rare talks with the North at the Panmunjom truce village on the heavily militarised inter-Korean border to discuss tension reduction on Friday.

"There has been no response as of late Thursday," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

The Red Cross in Seoul had also proposed a meeting August 1 at the same venue to discuss reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The twin proposals are the first concrete steps towards rapprochement with North since South Korea in May elected President Moon Jae-in, who favours greater engagement with Pyongyang.

The military meeting would mark the first official inter-Korea talks since December 2015. Moon's conservative predecessor Park Geun-hye had refused to engage in substantive dialogue with Pyongyang unless it made a firm commitment to denuclearisation.

Park was engulfed in a massive corruption scandal that resulted in her impeachment and subsequent ouster from office in March.

The South's Red Cross earlier said it hoped for "a positive response" from its counterpart in the North in hopes of holding family reunions in early October. If realised, they would be the first for two years.

Millions of family members were separated by the conflict that sealed the division of the two countries. Many died without getting a chance to see or hear from their families on the other side of the heavily-fortified border, across which all civilian communication is banned.

Around 60,000 members of divided families survive in the South.

Moon, who took power in May, has advocated dialogue with the nuclear-armed North to bring it to the negotiating table and vowed to play a more active role in global efforts to tame the South's unpredictable neighbour.

But Pyongyang has staged a series of missile launches in violation of UN resolutions — most recently on July 4 when it test-fired its first ICBM, a move which triggered global alarm and a push by US President Donald Trump to impose harsher UN sanctions.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had an additional, previously undisclosed chat at this month’s G-20 summit in Hamburg, the White House acknowledged on Tuesday.

After a brief greeting at the start of the two-day summit and a two-hour bilateral meeting with their foreign ministers on July 7, Trump and Putin also chatted over dinner on the final night of the summit, an official said.

“There was a couples-only social dinner at the G-20,” a White House official told AFP. “Toward the end, the president spoke to Putin at the dinner.”

 The disclosure has raised questions about what the pair talked about, who was present and why the meeting was not previously mentioned.

The Trump administration has been besieged by allegations that the president’s closest advisors colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

Trump’s eldest son Donald Jr recently released e-mails showing he held a meeting during the campaign with Kremlin-connected figures, hoping to get dirt on his dad’s election rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump late on Tuesday took to Twitter to blast the suggestion that there was anything improper about his dinner chat with Putin.

“Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick’. All G-20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!” he declared.

“The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!”

 A second White House official denied there was a “second meeting” between Trump and Putin, describing a “brief conversation at the end of a dinner”. 

“The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd,” the official said.

“At the dinner, President Trump was seated between Mrs Abe, wife of the prime minister of Japan, and Mrs Macri, wife of the president of Argentina. Mrs Trump was seated next to President Putin.”

 “During the course of the dinner, all the leaders circulated throughout the room and spoke with one another freely. President Trump spoke with many leaders during the course of the evening. As the dinner was concluding, President Trump went over to Mrs Trump, where he spoke briefly with President Putin.”

 The White House also rejected concerns that Trump was not with any other US officials and used Putin’s translator.

“Each couple was allowed one translator. The American translator accompanying President Trump spoke Japanese. When President Trump spoke to President Putin, the two leaders used the Russian translator, since the American translator did not speak Russian.”